Sorry for the long absence--now that we're back from Hawaii, we'll do better :)

Sooo, it been the longest interval ever in the history of the Nelson family blog. Sorry.
Last year was a crazy whirlwind of a year for us. My landscape firm has experienced astonishing growth. When we started in 2010 we were doing $7,000 jobs, the end of this year saw us wrapping up a $145,000 job! The price I paid for that was 70+ hr weeks and no outside life.

This year looks to be even more successful and crazy. Although my focus will be to maintain a better work/life balance. And with my in-laws leaving the country/continent to serve a mission for our church I will endeavor to keep up on this blog with more routine.

The biggest thing to happen to us this past year, besides the huge success of my company, is that we took some much needed family re-connecting time and spent the month of January in Hawaii.
It was such a calm and tranquil place. We had a long time there so we did  not feel any pressure to fill our days up with sight-seeing. In fact there were whole days when the only things we did was sit on a beach!
We had 2 weeks on the Kailua-Kona side of the Big Island, and 2 weeks on Kauai.

So here are some pics. [we just discovered that if you click on the pics they will come up in a full size slide show, however you do not get the captions with it] Then we shall resume afresh from here. (Before viewing the pics, start the music on the right side of the screen for background music.)

 At the airport

 Our "home" in Kona. it was very homey.

 Henry in the waves

Homeschooling.

 Nice eh?

 We saw lots of sea turtles

 I took lots of pics of the waves, they had a very translucent quality to them.

 Those waves are breaking on the shore nearly a mile away. I figure they were splashing about 150+ feet in the air.

 Steam vents around the volcano

Kids

 Neat pic of the waves. Everything was so beautiful.

 Sea arch on some of the newest earth on Earth.

 "Road Closed" ya think?

 My beauties!

Exploring a lava tube. It went in a least 400 yds. That's where Henry made us stop.

 The kids loved playing in the waves.

 Another beautiful sunset. Everybody seemed to stop and celebrate the sunsets.

Beautiful blue ocean waves--could just hang out at this beach for days.

 A golden sunset--almost every night was another amazing sunset

 Us looking towards the sunset as we were watching whales

There were at least 8 whales playing just off the coast--amazing!

Spinner dolphins

Our next home in Kapa'a Kauai

  

 We rented a Jeep. Then took it for a spin. It got very dirty.

  Removable tops are pretty darned cool.

 

Beautiful Hanalei lookout

 Neat looking waterfall spilling over red soil

 Fern near Waimea Canyon - the Grand Canyon of the Pacific

 Lunch break at Hanalei Bay

Crashing waves on the dock

 Kids at our Kapa'a beach

 After off-roading, we hiked through the jungle to a remote waterfall

Beautiful sunset

Yummy shave ice

 Ummm....maybe not the best day to be out in the ocean

 Hiking the Hawaiian way

 Super nifty sea cave. In the summer they say it's like a lake in there.

The Napali Coast--one of the coolest places I've ever seen in my life.

We can definitely see ourselves taking a month off every winter.

Spring is here

Spring is here! The socks and shoes are off and swinging time is now :)

Henry's first pinewood derby race. He & Caleb had a lot of fun making the car.

Fun at the park with the family of Keen shoe wearers

We have entered a new age--little boys helping out mowing the lawn. The other day Henry got the mower out of the garage, took it to the side yard and started it up all by himself. What a great helper!

Finally spring seems to be here. We have been so busy with all that entails. The garden is going in, the beds are mulched; I'm really looking forward to my dahlias coming up and the veggies growing. Yea for gardens!

Grounded (Caleb's business) is keeping him very busy and we are keeping busy too. The kids' favorite subject right now is history. They also love to visit the new baby kitties in the barn and run around outside, look for frogs, make forts and draw.

So, you're probably wondering whatever happened to the Nelsons. We're still here...just not updating anyone on what's been going on since sometime in October! I have to say that I (Lyn) am mostly to blame as I volunteered to post halloween pics and that never happened, so here's a picture of the spunky kitty and two jellyfish.
Done.
Just kidding :) I've got a collection of pictures so that you can get a glimpse of what we've been up to.
Fern & I went to visit my family for a couple days. We got to enjoy the beautiful fall foliage up Rock Canyon and had a great time visiting with everyone, including my sweet grandpa.How is this for contrasting next pictures?
The day after Thanksgiving is White Friday when we get to go up Icicle Canyon and get our Christmas tree. It was a beautiful sunshiney day and the kids loved sledding and playing in the snow.
We also had our traditional fancy picnic complete with plastic champagne glasses and turkey sandwiches on rolls--yum!

And here are the fearless Christmas tree explorers taking a self-portrait :) We have been getting our tree in the forest for years now and it is always an adventure and fun to find one just the right personality for our house.

And then there were treats... I love baking for Christmas. I have to admit I go a little overboard, but I have too many things that I love to eat this time of year. It's hard to pick a favorite, but one of my new favorites is homemade tangerine gumdrops.

And this sweet little drawing is of "Kombucha the bear". Not sure how he came about, but Fern loves to draw him & he is so cute! She also loves to draw kitties and is happy with any piece of paper and pen. Fern is a very expressive artist; Henry is more of a precision draftsman. He doesn't draw whimsical things--he draws schematics of his various inventions.

Here is Henry and his scarecrow friend. They had the funnest time one morning making buddies out of their clothes. It was a little disconcerting when we put them to bed and it looked like there was someone standing there...

Hope you are all enjoying your February. We had a lovely day of 60 degrees and sunny as can be. It's interesting how much happier the day (and people) are when the sun is out and we're able to be outside working & playing. We've just had so much fun that we all stayed up past bedtime to play games, listen to music, and use our new telescope to look at stars. What a wonderful day.

Anyway, there's more to come, but this should do for now :)